🧠 Omg he did it! | Elon actually bought Twitter

The right vs left debate, the Twitter acquisition, and labor day | Wisdom Letter #139

May 1, 2022

💰Elon buys Twitter

As preposterous as it sounds, Elon Musk bought Twitter this week.

As we had discussed a couple of weeks ago, he had made an offer to the Twitter board, to buy the company for $44 Billion.

He wants to take the company private and make changes to the product in a way that promotes free speech. And works as an ideal town square of the world.

It will be fun to watch the transformation over the next few years.

We’ve got some interesting reads around the whole story. But mostly, my hypothesis is that the debate between left and right is going to grow even more intense now.

🥷Left vs Right will Intensify

So far, Twitter was run by “left-liberal” executives. So it silenced/shadowbanned many right-wing voices in the name of “extremism”. (Including the former US President Donald Trump).

Now, as a less “woke” and more “conservative” owner(Elon) takes charge, it’s likely that extreme right-wing voices will find more space on the platform.

Of course, there’s nothing wrong with that.

But Elon wants free speech to exist, so most likely he will not silence or shadowban left-wing voices.

And left-wing voices will raise their volume even more just to get heard.

So overall, the platform is going to get way noisier than it already is. And the global town square will turn into a crowded fish bazaar.

We saw signs of this earlier this week when Elon Tweeted this:

Elon Musk @elonmusk

This is the crux of the online discourse right now.

People on the right, are moving further right.

People on the left, are moving further left.

And both sides think the other side is moving a lot further away than them.

This is how the left thinks:

Shibetoshi Nakamoto @BillyM2k

@elonmusk this is how i feel 10 years ago i would have called myself progressive cuz i believed in equality and not being an asshole over trivial things now i consider myself moderate because i believe in equality and not being an asshole over trivial things

People are even quick to take any piece of data and use it as a crutch to make their argument.

Like this:

Paul Graham @paulg

@elonmusk That is in fact what has happened. Since the 90s the right has moved a little further right, but the left has moved a lot further left.

And even use the same data to make the exact opposite argument:

G. Elliott Morris @gelliottmorris

People keep sending this chart to me and those people need to read up on the metric. This is a measure of how *consistent* voters are in their beliefs, not how extreme those beliefs are. It shows sorting not polarization.(IIRC when I was @ Pew some ppl called it "ideocentrality")

Smart people use data to further their beliefs.

Wise people use data to test their beliefs.

The problem is that the world is full of smart people, but not enough wise people.

So we will see a lot more noise and a lot less signal.

Truth is, that all of us lie somewhere in the middle of the spectrum, most sensible people aren’t extremists for either ideology.

But just to make themselves heard they have to raise their voice.

In an attempt to feel heard, they end up sounding like extremists.

This is exactly what happens in a crowded bazaar. When you go there, you shout. Even if you’re calm and peaceful at your home.

That’s what Twitter will turn into now.

This tweet and the debate around it is just a small trailer of the movie we’re about the witness.

So brace yourself.

😎 More on Musk:

Elon Musk: The World’s Raddest Man | Wait But Why Blog
Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future | The Must biography by Ashlee Vance.

By the way, Walter Isaacson is also writing a Musk biography.

Elon Musk @elonmusk

If you’re curious about Tesla, SpaceX & my general goings on, @WalterIsaacson is writing a biography

Walter says Elon can multi-task, well we do hope so 😀:

Walter Isaacson @WalterIsaacson

Late last night, after winning his battle for Twitter, @elonmusk was in Boca Chica and held his regular 10 pm meeting on Raptor engine design, where he spent more than an hour working on valve leak solutions. No one mentioned Twitter. He can multitask.

This should be a fun book to read. Looking forward.

🦉 More on the Twitter acquisition

Is Musk vs Zuck next?

Mark Cuban @mcuban

How do you see the whole future of the metaverse vs the future of Twitter matchup. Zuck vs @elonmusk ? So much at stake financially. In 5/10 yrs what will be the dominant platform? Will a 2 dimension Twitter still be preferred or will it be a multidimensional @Meta verse vision?

Or is Musk vs Bezos next?

Jeff Bezos @JeffBezos

Interesting question. Did the Chinese government just gain a bit of leverage over the town square?

Mike Forsythe 傅才德 @PekingMike

Apropos of something: -Tesla's second-biggest market in 2021 was China (after the US) -Chinese battery makers are major suppliers for Tesla's EVs. -After 2009, when China banned Twitter, the government there had almost no leverage over the platform -That may have just changed

This is an interesting thread about how a public company goes private:

FinFloww @FinFloww

Elon Musk just bought twitter… but there’s a lot of noise about how this happened Here’s exactly what you need to know. A thread🧵

✅ Left vs Right

If you’re new to the “left vs right” debate, this Rap battle is an entertaining way to get the historical perspective on the issue.

It’s also a good way to think of how we want to structure an ideal society.

And it’s labor day today. So give Marx a chance to make his point.

The March of History:

The most fun is the last minute of the video. Where both sides think only half the video was good.

Unfortunately, that’s how we humans interpret all stories and data🤷

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